Iowa Governor Restores Voting Rights to Ex-Felons

June 16, 2005

Iowa Governor Tom Vilsack announced Friday June 17th that he will sign
an executive order on July 4th to streamline the process of restoring
voting rights to ex-felons. The order will return voting rights to an
estimated 80,000 Iowans who would otherwise have needed to petition the
governor under the current law.

Vilsack’s order follows a similar move by Nebraska’s state legislature
in March that restored voting rights to ex-felons. There are now only
four states- Florida, Kentucky, Alabama and Virginia- that completely
deny the right to vote to people with previous felony convictions.

FairVote believes that Iowa's effort is an important step towards
ensuring an equal right to vote that cannot be abridged simply on
account of a citizen's state of residence.